14 DAY TRIAL // It does seem odd to see a new expansion for a game that's already more than 3 years old. The original Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War was launched in September 2004. Yet the reception of the game has been so positive that THQ released an add-on in 2005, under the name of Winter Assault, then a stand-alone expansion in 2006, titled Dark Crusade. Now, THQ with developers Relic and Iron Lore are bringing the stand-alone Soulstorm expansion to PC's on March 4th.
The great thing about the Warhammer 40,000 universe is that it allows almost unlimited growth and innovation. There are a lot of potential factions and unlimited battlegrounds on which developers can focus. Soulstorm continues the "bigger and better" tradition of the series by promising to offer a better campaign experience, new factions, and by introducing air units.
The two new factions to play around with are the Dark Eldar, frail yet terrifying, and the Adepta Sororitas, big on faith while low on hitpoints. Yup, this means that Tyranids, a long time fan request, are once again left out of the game. The official line is that the current engine would not do them justice. Still there should be no complaints about the faction line-up as it includes most of the interesting armies of the table top universe. The Dark Eldar will harvest souls from fallen enemies to fuel their terror-based attacks while the Sisters of Battle will rely on their faith in the Emperor to guide them to victory.
Second, there's the campaign. In Dawn of War and the Winter Assault, add-on campaigns consisted of linked missions with little strategic depth. Dark Crusade changed all that with the introduction of a strategic map that traced the path the player took to conquer the whole of planet Kronus. Now, Soulstorm is taking the concept one step further as it allows players to do battle on 4 planets and 3 moons within a single star system. That, coupled with a staggering 9 playable factions, should provide plenty of strategic possibilities and threats and really enhance the replay value of the game.
For those who need to quench their Warhammer 40,000 thirst, there's a demo available now. Release date is March 4th.